To date, health authorities in Mexico’s largely rural Durango state have documented 79 meningitis cases over the past few months. Meningitis is typically associated with painful inflammation of the brain and spinal cord, often caused by a virus or in some cases bacteria or a fungal infection. The first case of meningitis in Durango was confirmed late last year when doctors diagnosed several cases of aseptic meningitis, an especially harmful inflammation of the brain. The infected patients in Durango had all been subjected to surgeries that used spinal anesthesia in private hospitals in the sprawling state’s capital...